Kyoya Kiyomizu honke — Restaurant in Kyoto

I can only describe my experience here as a fascinating gastronomic adventure!

The food was delightful – well prepared, fresh, flavorful but balanced, and beautifully presented.

It was so much fun to pore over the menu for a full week afterwards, and discover that a lot of the ingredients were seasonal and locally produced right here in Kyoto.

There is a bit of a barrier to entry here if you can't read the menu handwritten exclusively in Japanese, but we were lucky to have our Japanese friend dine with us.

The menu has likely changed by now, but here's my amateur attempt at translating the menu from the night of our visit. I wish they would make a plain text digital version so non-Japanese-literate customers can easily read the menu using a translation app and just point to order.

In the meantime, to unlock the full experience: Go with a Japanese mate. Skip over the limited English menu, and savor the best of Kyoto this epicurean wonderland...

Very very rude people. If you are not Japanese, they give you a tourist a menu very poor and expensive. No choices. Japanese people eat different food. I realise that the restaurant has a menu with a lot of different dishes, but they did not even try to ask me for my preferences. I got just the standard food for tourist. They do not try to be nice with you or help you. They just feed you. Real bad experience. I choosed this restaurant thinking in having a real local food experience in Kyoto. Very disappointed. After paying the bill, even nobody thanked me for being a guest or asked me if everything was ok. This is my first time in Japan that the waiters are not extremely police. In many other restaurants every time I was very glad of the Japanese kindness. Unfortunately not this time. I felt they just wanted to take my money. I...

Really wonderful little place, we randomly walked in after our original restaurant plan had a huge line and we were really impressed. I only speak rudimentary japanese and the staff only spoke rudimentary english but they have an english-language menu and the staff really went above and beyond, translating everything to make sure we knew what everything on our plate was. The food was simple and delicious, particularly the sashimi and the sukiyaki, and it had a really cosy atmosphere that immediately made us feel at ease. It’s not a restaurant to plan your whole trip around but if you’re in the area I’d really recommend...